Father
by Sapadu
Summary: What do they do in Star Wars to celebrate Fathers Day? Find out. A late fic for my dad.


Father  
By Sapadu  
Written as a late Father's Day gift for my dad.  
  
"Commander Skywalker, what's 'Father's Day'?" Ken, the Jedi Prince, lay flat on his stomach, his legs bent and his head propped up on his elbows. Luke Skywalker, who had been filling out a report for the Alliance, put down his pen and turned around to face the boy he had been designated to take care of.  
"I don't really know. Why do you ask?" Luke asked. Ken shrugged and kicked his feet back and forth in midair.  
"It's just that all the other students at school are talking about what they're going to do on Father's Day, and each and every one of those plans seems to involve everyone's father in some way, shape, or form. It's just kind of confusing to me." The boy explained. Luke's brow creased in concentration.  
"Well... from the way you say your peers are reacting... I'd say Father's Day is a day when families show their appreciation for the fathers. Of course, I never celebrated this, growing up with my aunt and uncle, and traditionally, the Jedi don't celebrate holidays." Luke said. Ken frowned and stuck out his lower lip.  
"That stinks!" He whined, making Luke roll his eyes and shrug.  
"That's life." Luke replied. He DID have work to do... and not to put TOO fine a point on it, but it was due the next day and quite important.  
"But what are WE supposed to do? Your father is... well, dead... and my dad's a prisoner." Ken asked, then thought out loud, as Luke turned back to his report, "Maybe we should ask Princess Leia..."  
"I wouldn't do that if I were you. She's got enough on her plate with the Alliance and she's trying to help HER children figure out what they want to do for Han on Father's Day." Luke replied, not really listening to himself. Ken sat up.  
"Captain Solo and Princess Leia have CHILDREN?" The Jedi Prince asked, astounded that something had escaped his attention.  
"Twins." The older Jedi confirmed.  
  
And speaking of Han and Leia...  
  
"Momma, what should we do for Daddy on Sunday?" The three year old Jaina asked her mother, her brown eyes shining as Leia picked up her daughter and sat Jaina on her knee. Leia bit her lower lip, thoughtfully.  
"I'm not sure yet. What do you think Daddy would like?" Leia asked her daughter as the three-year-old replica of herself bit her nails. She seemed to be thinking as hard as she could.  
"Well... Daddy really likes Co... Co... Co... well... ian... food! Should we make something? Maybe a card! Miss Winter taught me and Jacen how to make them!" Jaina's brown eyes lit up. Leia smiled.  
"Why don't you go tell your brother about that, then, if you ask Miss Winter nicely, she might help you, okay?" The brown-eyed woman said, setting her daughter on the floor, while Jaina's little legs power-housed her off to find her twin brother and Winter. Winter, meanwhile, had been in the next room, listening, and chose this moment to come out.  
"So, Leia, what do YOU plan on doing?" The white haired lady asked. Leia smirked- a sign that meant Leia had a VERY clear plan of what she was going to do... though, that smirk had been reserved for mischief making when they had been children.  
"A weekend at the hot springs. He's been working FAR too hard lately." Leia replied, idly straightening the forms she had on her desk.  
Winter smiled a soft smile.  
"He will enjoy that. I hope you two will have a good time." Leia's life-long friend said as a word of parting, before leaving the room to find the twins and watch them.  
Leia grinned to herself. Oh, they would have a good time INDEED...  
  
On Father's Day...  
  
Triclops sat on the cold, bare floor of the cell he occupied in Alliance Headquarters. He HATED just sitting around with nothing to do. Oh, yes, this was better than the Imperial Reprogramming Institute on Kessel: At least the prisoners were fed food that didn't have any mold or maggots in it and the water didn't have sludge in it and they didn't have to sleep on the floor... but there was really nothing to do...  
He wished there was something to do...  
"Mr. Triclops, you have a visitor." The voice of the guard cut through the three-eyed man's brooding. Surprised, Triclops stood up. Who would be visiting him? Surely, there was no one who would want to see him...  
The guard unlocked the door and led him through the halls of the prison. There were a few others here, but because the New Republic was so fresh and new, not many people had committed crimes within this citizenship.  
"Five minutes. Here." The guard had led him to a booth where he could speak to his visitor from behind glass. Triclops entered, expecting to see maybe an officer or a judge, but nothing of the sort.  
"Father." It was Ken. Triclops couldn't even sit down, he was so shocked at seeing his son here, visiting him. The white-haired mutant pressed one long-fingered hand against the glass.  
"K-Ken?" He stammered. Damn! He wasn't supposed to stammer! Ken smiled, a smile so much like Triclops remembered seeing Ken's mother smile so many times before. And the fact that his son had actually wanted to come and see him... WELL...  
"Happy Father's Day, Father." Ken said, still smiling. It wasn't strained either... it made Triclops' heart thud quite painfully in his chest. Both of his hands were pressed against the glass now. He wanted to give his son a HUG, dammit! But... at least he was allowed to talk to him.  
  
"Hello, son." Triclops' vocabulary skills came back to him, "How are you doing?"  
"Oh... can't complain." Ken said with a shrug, "I really miss you, though."  
"I miss you too. How's school going?" Triclops figured that he might as well just go along with general topics. It's what fathers were supposed to do.  
"School's going... well." Ken answered, though Triclops had no idea that his son was, in fact, lying through his teeth, but that didn't really matter.  
"Aren't you still in Commander Skywalker's care? Where is he?" Triclops asked, suddenly realizing the Jedi Knight was no where to be seen.  
"Oh, Luke went to visit his father, too." Ken said.  
  
And speaking of Luke...  
  
While his father didn't really have a grave, there was a marker among all the true burial spots. Luke had never been here before, just as he had never collected the ashes from his father's cremation. He'd always felt if he had done either, he wouldn't be able to truly let go of his father's death.  
Now, it actually felt right to come and kneel before the marker. Almost as though his father's spirit had been waiting for him to come. Luke expanded his feelings through the Force, meeting a quiet, yet powerful murmur of peace and, especially around his father's marker, relief, soft joy, and so, so guilty, but caring.  
Luke folded his legs beneath him and concentrated on those feelings, stretching his soul farther and farther towards the sky and outwards, meditating on the miracle of life, the unknown of death, and the turbulence that transitioned one from life to death. The Jedi Knight meditated on the Force, how life could not exist without it, how it could not exist without life, how so much like a family the Force was: never alone, always dependent, yet always supporting. But most of all, Luke meditated on his father. How his own journey to be a Jedi had all been for his father: He'd wanted to become one because Obi-Wan Kenobi had told Luke that his father had been a Jedi, he'd pushed through his training because he'd wanted to learn more about himself and his father, Luke had confronted his father, then showed him mercy in his final step to becoming a Jedi Knight, to bring his father back to being Anakin Skywalker, not Darth Vader.  
The peace around him was disturbed by a light chirping of a family of birds, who had built their nest in the tree overlooking the graves, but Luke took no notice. He was so lost in the deep meditation of the Jedi way, as well as the relaxation in the presence of his father.  
A father, Luke could tell, who was proud of him and his sister, for making it so far, never giving up, and reaching their goal, as he hadn't until the end of his life.  
Very proud, indeed.  
  
And speaking of Luke's sister...  
  
"Here, Daddy! Me and Jaina and Miss Winter made this for you." Three- year-old Jacen dumped a box into his father's lap, the wrapping paper mostly regular white paper with crayon scribbles all over it, with the occasional sticker or spot of glue with glitter over it. Han grinned at his son and opened it carefully. He didn't PLAN on saving the wrapping paper, but he also knew the twins would be heart-broken if he ruined whatever they had spent so long working on.  
Under the wrapping paper was a plain box, but when Han opened it, there was a little, hand made book, with Jaina's and Jacen's painstakingly scribbled crayon drawings (Though the Corellian smuggler did recognize Winter's neat handwriting), as well as a picture with a frame made from popsicle sticks, and a bag holding three cookies.  
"Lookit, me and Jacen made up the story and Miss Winter wrote it for us." Jaina said, picking up the stapled together book and handing it to her father, while Jacen pointed at pictures saying "I drew that one, and that one, and that one..."  
"Who made the cookies?" Han asked the overly excited twins.  
"Momma." Jaina said, "Do you like them?" Han shot a grin at his wife, who was sitting in a chair across from him with Winter, trying not to giggle and give away her big surprise.  
Han pulled out the picture and again recognized Winter's careful craftsmanship, though he was sure that Jacen and Jaina had glued the buttons and puzzle pieces on the frame.  
"And did you guys make this ALL by yourself?" He joked, leaning down to look both the twins in the eye. Jaina nodded vigorously while Jacen needed to think about it for a little while before nodding too. Han reached his arms around their waist and tickled them before Leia took a good look at the time and declared it time for the little ones to go to bed. Both the twins protested as best they could between yawns as Winter led them up the stairs to bed.  
"Those two are too cute sometimes." Han said, leaning over to kiss his wife on the cheek. Leia grinned.  
"Yeah, just like you." She replied, kissing him back. Then, Leia leaned forward to whisper into Han's ear, "And if you didn't notice, I didn't get you something today. So, next weekend, I get two days off, and I'm taking you to the hot springs. Just couldn't say that in front of the twins." Han grinned and kissed Leia's neck.  
In the old days, she would've smacked him for that, but this time, she didn't.  
  
The Next Weekend...  
  
"Miss Winter, can we go and visit Uncle Luke, since Momma and Daddy are gone?" The twins begged, and after a good full hour, Winter decided they weren't going to drop it, so she put their shoes on their feet and walked them over to Luke's apartment.  
Jacen and Jaina began to knock, unceasing, and crying out "Uncle Luke! It's us!" until, finally, the door cracked open.  
  
Perspective switch  
  
Ken had been reading his geometry textbook, trying to figure out what the ratio for sine was (and, while he was at it, cosine and tangent, because once he knew those, he automatically knew sine) when someone had knocked on the door.  
After stopping himself from falling off the floating mattress he'd been laying on, Ken stood up, wondering who it could be, until he heard two, three-year-old voices squealing "Uncle Luke! It's us!" Oh, it was those twins Luke had told him about. Well, he'd been wanting to meet them... Ken walked over to the door and opened it. Staring up at him were two pairs of big, brown eyes, both completely confused as to who he could possibly be. There was a woman standing behind them, completely white, even her hair.  
Ken had read about HER in the Jedi Library once or twice. This lady had to be Winter, the playmate and companion of Princess Leia in her childhood, who had grown up to be her bodyguard and aide. Ken didn't say anything. Finally, the girl twin spoke.  
"Who are you?" She asked. Ken knelt so he could see them without craning his neck.  
"I'm Ken. You two must be the twins, right?" Ken replied, grinning. Jaina was still glaring at him.  
"We came to visit their uncle because Leia and Han are taking a weekend off to visit the hot springs." Winter explained as Luke came into the room.  
"There he is! Uncle Luke!" Jaina cried, edging past Ken and giving her uncle a big hug around the knees. Jacen was a bit more hesitant to come in, mostly because this Ken person looked scary.  
While Jaina babbled endlessly about the recent events in the Solo household, Ken invited Winter and Jacen inside and closed the door, but Jacen still hung back, reluctant to go any closer to his sister than this because she would have been likely to smack him with the way she was bouncing around.  
In the end, Jacen just gave his Uncle a hug and spent the rest of the time oohing and aahing over all the cool stuff that Ken had, including a model of the Millennium Falcon, and they had a duel using Ken's action figures of Darth Vader and Obi-Wan Kenobi.  
"So, why are Leia and Han not here again?" Luke asked Winter once the twins had to go down for a nap, and Winter explained the situation again. Luke was quite amused.  
  
And speaking of Han and Leia...  
  
......  
I'll leave THAT up to your imagination.  
  
In fact, scratch what I said above: I dedicate this to ALL fathers everywhere. 


End file.
